17.02 German Doctors Begin Surgery on Komissarova – Father

SOCHI, February 17 (R-Sport) – Doctors in Munich have begun operating on Maria Komissarova, the Russian skicross racer who broke her back in a training crash in Sochi, her father told RIA Novosti on Monday.

The 23-year-old was airlifted to Germany on Sunday after Russian surgeons performed a six-and-a-half-hour operation on her fractured, dislocated spine and said they had done everything they could for her.

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told R-Sport that Komissarova, who suffered the fall in training at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park on Saturday morning, would need another to undergo another operation and rehabilitation in Munich.

"About an hour ago the operation started. The best doctors are doing it," her father Leonid Komissarov told RIA Novosti.

The Russian Freestyle Federation announced earlier in the day that Komissarova remains in a stable but critical condition. She was visited in hospital in Russia by President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.